Episode Details

In this emotional and hope-filled episode, I sit down with my childhood friend, Tonya Duncan, who shares the ultimate lesson in resilience.   Tonya shares the story of her son Alex, who was born with multiple special needs and later diagnosed with aggressive testicular cancer in his early 20s. She talks about his fighting spirit, how he used the gifts given to him to help others, and how that generosity inspired the Alex G. Duncan Foundation for Fighting Testicular Cancer, which supports men and families walking through this diagnosis.

Tonya also opens up about her daughter Ashley, a beautiful, high-achieving competitive cheerleader whose life was slowly taken over by addiction after an ankle injury and early exposure to opioids. She walks us through Ashley’s decade-long battle, the signs she missed, the guilt she wrestled with, and the reality of losing a child to overdose. We talk about the differences between losing a child to disease and to addiction, the strain and strength in her marriage to Darren, the role of faith and mindset, and how she’s slowly rediscovered movement, creativity, and joy while choosing, day by day, to seek peace rather than chase happiness.

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